This is the Afterparty, where we sit down after every episode to break down our game and answer your questions about how to play at home. Today we talk about splitting the party, DMing vs. playing, and how we’ve grown so far.

Transcript

Amanda: Hey welcome to the Afterparty where we talk about what just happened on the show. Answer your questions. Think about what might happen next. Speculate wildly. Sing lots of songs, and make worse jokes than we're allowed to make in the show.

Eric: Hey now. Heeyyy Now!

Amanda: Nope, not going to do that too easy.

Brandon: The dream is over!

Amanda: I'll just wait until you're ready to come back to class.

Eric: All right. Ms. McLoughlin

Amanda: Thank you. So listeners may not know this but for this episode we weren't actually in the room with each other when we were doing our tasks. So Brendan and Fish. I don't actually know what you guys did during your segments just that there was a pair of aviators that came out. I will, I will hear from you off-mic about that because listeners already heard it. So Eric why did you decide to have us play that way? It was kind of cool and interesting.

Eric: There is a prevailing rule in D&D to not split the party. You never want people to go off on their own, but sometimes people need to go off on their own like that's life, that's preparing. And I feel like we have this training montage and all of you are supposed to do your own thing and it would actually be kind of silly if all of you were supposed to like do wrestling training or like go read in the library or be inspired by an older woman like Amanda was. And i think that's OK. So we set it up evenly and I kind of wanted to have some one on one role playing time. D&D is actually, can be done just with the DM and a player but it's complicated and hard. So I just wanted to kind of mess around and literally make you feel like you went off to do your own thing during the day.

Amanda: Fish have you ever split your parties before as a DM?

Michael: Oh yes. And it's always difficult and it's always a lot of fun because everyone including generally the DM hates the process because it just causes more problems than it starts.

Brandon: Wait why wouldn't you want to split the party?

Michael: I mean logistically it's a nightmare because if you have so many people in the room that you're asking people to leave and come back it stops the flow of the game. One great way around it is to pass messages to and from or even text now which is great.

Amanda: I know dad, aren't cellphones awesome?

Brandon: New fangled technology!

Eric: Man, my razor is the top of the line.

Michael: I realized that the more I do this podcast, the older I am. That's an aside.

Eric: I think that the hardest part though is to keep everyone entertained. It's not even like splitting the party like yeah people will die but it's like how do you have six people and three people aren't doing anything and three people are. So like when we record it we literally can take the time to like go out and chill out. And I think that's OK. I want to have one on one time with you. And like you two can go like, I don't know play flappy bird for 20 minutes.

Michael: I personally love asymmetrical game play in any form. We had a player betray his group and like just basically joined the bad guys group in a D&D game I was in I was DM'ing. And from then on he would come maybe every other game and the in-between games I would just meet with him one on one before the main players play. So we were able to make logistics work in a way that made the game fun for everyone. And add this element of cool. So I loved when Eric told me that we were going to be doing this today. I was like "Yeahhhh!!!" because this splitting the party is not as awful as it seems

Amanda: And is the prevailing wisdom don't split the party about the characters or about the players because as we mentioned it can be boring if you're sitting at the table and not doing anything. Or is it against like in game the party should not be split. Because probably someone's going to die.

Michael: I think it's a characters right. A good friend of mine was like even on the episode one that we did kind of split the party was like oh my god you guys split the party at the beginning! Like he was doing a live like text as he was listening. Like no no no don't don't don't split the party. Relax relax it's OK.

Amanda: It's a horror movie logic.

Eric: Exactly.

Brandon: it's a one episode podcast we're all dead at the end, it's fine!

Eric: Yeah it's that, it's like you never go off alone because they need to fight the monster by yourself. I think it's like dungeon crawling mentality is like you are a party and you all have pluses and minuses and if you go like one on one with a troll, a troll can like exploit your weakness very easy. And it's about not dying really quickly.

Michael: I mean even Tracey brought up in this episode that we don't currently have healing powers but not everything is attack. Not everything is health and dying so splitting the party can be fun because it's not just about whether or not we're about to die.

Brandon: But like there could be a lot of bad rolls in a row where Inara or I could actually die like that is possible but like it wouldn't be a podcast if you just, it's just Johnny from then on

Michael: oh

Brandon: It would be a very sad podcast.

Michael: Johnny will have Joe the camel. Johnny will have

Amanda: Oatcake

Michael: Oatcake. This briefcase thing, and Johnny will make a mini Nessie or a Tracey or a mini Inara out of Dancing Lights. It's the Johnny brigade!

Amanda: Inara would just look really pissed that she was made to dance even in dancing form. the little light person wouldn't be able to do anything

Eric: and excuse me. Its called Tallahassee's bag. Thank you very much.

Brandon: Also its turns into crocodile and is going to eat you if you do that.

Amanda: I do like that we thought to ask about a healing potion like we asked, I think some good questions at the end of that episode not knowing what each other got up to. But what was the experience like of playing one on one with the DM.

Brandon: I loved it. When you play with four players like there is some like not in a bad way but like tightrope walking you have to like give people space to talk and give people space to react in maybe you have a line in your head that's like or an action that would be super fun. But like you know what Inara, is actually that's a better move for that point like that's better audio or better for the gameplay. But in this moment like I got to like kind of just be like weird and silly and and also like accomplished things all at once and like the spotlight was on Tracey for a bit. And yeah just had a really good time. And it is a weird experience that I'm just in here with like a single person like doing character voices and being weird people. But I do that all the time with my friends. We have characters that we make up. So it's, I don't know it's just like that's really fun

Amanda: for the same reasons I felt a lot of pressure, again a new person in the game. Knowing that I was the only person who could carry the action forward if there was a question posed to me or riddle placed in front of me. I was like well what if I don't get it. Like, like the other people aren't here to help but at the same token I don't know it. I think it forced me to commit to some character choices and to do stuff in a way that I might not have taken the time to like interrupt you guys and do something you know if all of us were here at the table or just would kind of hung back and waited. And you know it's conveniently an Inara thing that I'm getting better at that as time goes on. But I think was also a nice kind of trial run of what it would be like to approach roleplaying assuming that I'm the one driving the plot forward.

Brandon: It kind of puts your feet to the fire a little bit.

Amanda: Yeah.

Michael: I mean it's always a good time when Johnny is able to creep someone else out and it's not on purpose!

Eric: all the time.

Michael: It's never on purpose! He's always trying to be like "Tammy and Taylor y'all are cool" and they're like, eww an old man. And then with Ella it's like, read these interesting facts about this religion that I am the only one who believes in. And she's like I found your diary. And why did you pee yourself all the time? Like, come on

Brandon: Hey, why did you do that?

Michael: Listen. OK.

Eric: Well is it it's your fault for telling me that the Book of Light had your diary in it like what was i supposed to do?

Michael: Its a diary/manifesto/reference book and apparently now calculator. But for me I actually really like it because off-mic and just in our day to day lives. I'm always thinking about and pestering the three of you especially Eric about my thoughts on the Undying Light because I am viewing it as a manifesto as an almost cult almost. I think it's real. I think I like really think it's real, in terms of not my human Mikey. But like in the game, in character I'm losing the script here...

Brandon: is this entire podcast is your way of converting this to this weird cult that you're actually starting in real real life?

Amanda: And this would be an elaborate evangelism.

Brandon: I mean it's working...

Amanda: is our logo actually the undying light? Is the undying light shaped like a d10? d8, whatever it is.

Brandon: Ohmygod....

Michael: I'll never tell (in a voice)

Amanda: And Fish does text to us with May The Undying Light Be With You Always.

Michael: And so for me it's just fun to collaborate with Eric on-mic about it and get some stuff out there about that. So that was just fun

Amanda: and sort of one more observation that I have any way about the sort of one on one break with form that we did. This episode is we also have to decide what information to tell each other. There have been a couple of instances where our characters learn things so far that other characters didn't know but us as players we're here to witness that. And so like I don't know the full shape of what you all did during your sessions and vice versa I think it's kind of cool like it sort of gives us more choices and more agency over information sharing in character.

Brandon: Yeah. So normally like any time you're playing any D&D game you have to do this really tight walk of you know what does my character know, what do I actually know, and that I actually like, think to yourself what your character would do as their lack of information. But in this case even as we're recording I literally have no idea what y'all two did besides what we like said briefly in the episode. I still have no idea what you guys did and I think that's like, it adds in a whole other dimension to the gameplay in that I'm forced now to make decisions that my character make based on a lack of information which is like more real to real life.

Michael: And I mean I don't think Johnny would go through and say every single thing he found out from that, that's just not how he would go he would say the relevant things that would be interesting to the group but I think Johnny knows why he's glowing. I think he's not going to tell them. I think Johnny knows a lot more about the Undying Light now. I think Johnny is not going to tell them, but he'll talk about the challenge he will talk a little bit about the Concentric States

Brandon: Will he preach to me at some point?

Michael: every day

Amanda: everything he says

Michael: is everything I say.

Eric: I think if you have a chance to enhance dramatic irony in gaming and theater in general you might as well take that shot. So I want that. And if we're going to record this thing that is even though it's gaming or whatever that is literally a piece of art. It is my job as the DM to try to enhance that.

Amanda: And from an audio standpoint it is a smart move because like Brennan said it forces us to be a little more resolutely in character when making decisions because all we have is what our character knows from the other characters. But it also makes us explain ourselves on mic more because I assume less about what you guys are going to do in a situation or when I ask questions. I have to ask questions to you as my character because I don't have that insider knowledge of what has happened 10 minutes ago on your side of the table. So I think you know I don't know maybe a suggestion or a challenge for our fellow gaming podcasters like maybe it's interesting to experiment with one on one, splitting up the party, other sorts of formal things that you can try to make the experience of recording and of listening a little bit different.

Eric: And now a shout out of the patrons that I used for npc names. Ella the librarian is Ella B. from New Zealand

Brandon: Your note was so sweet, oh my god.

Eric: Oh my god. Amazing.

Michael: I'm so sorry about what you read the diary.

Eric: Oh Horkley was Ben Horkley. Another one of our patrons.

Brandon: Can I say: the coolest name.

Eric: Very

Brandon: I'm naming my first child that Horkley. Are you kidding?

Amanda: It's awesome.

Michael: He's pretty great.

Eric: And finally our head of guard was Rose Battlestroke which I took from Kaileigh Rose who was one of our first listeners and is very dope and talks to us on Twitter all the time

Amanda: You go Kaileigh Rose.

Brandon: Killin it

Michael: I also like that name. So something that happened this episode other than me being glowing that we didn't talk about is that, I leveled up other than a few extra spells slots and things I can do including a new cantrip I will decide, my ability scores went up which means I'm going to be better better better I remembered I have daylight which is a cool spell but also I just got something called Fire Shield which just like this aura. In fact I think it'd be cool if the Aura changes colors to either Red which is the Hot one because it creates an aura of either red light or an aura of like a bluish light which is hot or cold resistance and it emanates light as well because duh, Johnny if someone attempts to hit me melee, it does 2d8 damage of either hot or cold as it bursts.

Eric: Tight

Amanda: We all grew up in the 90s. Is this aura your mood ring?

Michael: Oh yeah I'd say yes

Eric: I like that in the text of this spell that says you have a chill shield, I really need a chill shield.

Michael: It's a Hashtag Chill Shield

Eric: I have a question from the Twitters with me. This is coming from Julia Schifini. I don't know what that is.

Amanda: Who's that? She sounds pretty cool. I should probably start a podcast with her.

Brandon: She sounds fine.

Michael: Didn't I have a beer with her last night?

Eric: Probably.

Amanda: Weird...

Eric: Who is your dream guest NPC and what kind of a role would they play?

Michael: It would be cool if Julia was on the podcast.

Eric: Oh my God.

Brandon: David Boreanaz

Eric: David Boreanaz please get at us. Bones!

Michael: He's such an Angel

Eric: (dies)

Brandon: (stumbles over words)

Amanda: WOooooow that just hit me.

Brandon: He would play... let me think what he should play...

Michael: Didn't we talk to someone in here about who I think the voice of the Undying light should be?

Amanda: No. I have an answer before you say that.

Brandon: Can we all fantasy cast that

Michael: I can't remember.

Amanda: Think about what you're going to say and we all say it on three

Eric: I'm going to say David Boreanaz.

Michael: Thats a good answer!

Amanda: OK. Three two one. Go.

All: (incoherence)

Michael: none of that worked

Brandon: Let's try again!

Eric: Why are we doing all this at the same time?

Michael: yeah that's not gonna work

Brandon: Its funny.

Amanda: I just arrived at that same thought. Yes. I'm going to go around the table and rapid fire when I point at you say who you want to voice the undying light. We will break for laughter at the end. Like a middle school band performance we're going to clap at the end of the night. OK. Ready

Amanda: Vin Diesel.

Eric: Nathan Lane

Brandon: Benedict Cumberbatch

Michael: Sofia Vergara

Amanda: Nathan Lane would be hilarious. But no seriously my guest NPC is Vin Diesel and I think he should play the opposite of a fighter which would be I don't know, like a celestial being that voices the undying light.

Brandon: I would actually genuinely, if Martin Freeman came on the show. Holy shit. Are you kidding.

Amanda: I can see him playing a character, I could see him playing Tracey in in a movie.

Brandon: Yeah

Eric: I definitely want one of the representatives of the other four city states. I wanted one of them to be Estelle who voices Garnett in Steven Universe. And just like it's not even like my monotone is like not doing it justice, as like her calm demeanor delivered like that's like powerful being. I want that.

Michael: I'll tell you what if I could, if we could have like anyone who's worked on Steven Universe on this. I love them and I want Rebecca Sugar to write a song for us. That's what, if we're talking about dreams. Because there's moments in this podcast, where in my head I'm just singing in my head one of the songs because it just matches what's happening and I just or I'm deciding that matches what's happening and the songs and it was like...

Brandon: I can always use some inspiration bro, send those over to me.

Michael: Ok yes.

Eric: All right we've got some questions from our Discord. Thank you discord. We are going to start with Brendan who really wants to know how many bagels and Inara can fit in her mouth. They need an exact number.

Amanda: You know how there's a dozen, It's 12 bagels right. And there's the baker's dozen which is 13 ,which has really interesting roots actually in taxes on bread in England. Hit me up on Twitter @shessomickey I'll tell you all about it. Then there's the Inara's Dozen which is 14 bagels and that is the max and they're Flagels it can be 21.

Eric: Oh jeez. She can just unhinge her jaw just to eat bagels

Amanda: like dwarves in Artemis Fowl. Yes she can.

Eric: That's sounds about right.

Michael: Just so it's clear. Brandon is literally tweeting at Amanda right now asking this question.

Amanda: I will text you on the subway home don't worry

Michael: No, tweeting.

Amanda: I will tweet you on the subway home also.

Brandon: Beautiful

Eric: Nessie the Squirrel Owlbear asked Where it was Stoneface? Where isn't Stoneface? Amiright?

Amanda: That's the better question. He is the eye in this sky man.

Eric: He's in our hearts truly

Amanda: always and in our vocabularies when we're making fun of each other.

Eric: Pomegranate had a ton of questions for us. The first one is for Inara. We have the photo of the dog wearing pants. So how does Oatcake wear her pants? Does she wear them like on her bottom half. Here's the photo or on the back half.

Amanda: Oatcake doesn't wear pants because she is a free creature but it will be on the back half if needed to wear pants.

Eric: I love that

Michael: If for some reason you have no idea what we're referencing because you've never been on the internet. No worries. Tweet @jointhepartypod and we will either DM or just post the picture because come on, you have to know this

Amanda: I hadn't seen it before today.

Michael: Really.

Brandon: I'm tweeting that right now.

Amanda: Ok cool. We also question from Pomegranate around DM'ing. So a question for Eric how would you say your overall DM style has changed between now and when you first started way back in the day, aka several months ago. Or are there any moments that came to mind when something happened in a game either run by you or someone else that made you really want to change or implement something about how you ran things.

Eric: You know what's really funny is that the thing that's changing my DMing style are audio dramas. The more that I listen to how the audio space can be pushed is actually the way that I'm changing my game. When I first started DM'ing I really like the idea of making players actually play games within the game. So one of the first things I ever did was a green dragon activated its domain feature around this mountain and it created this maze of vines. So I made all of my players roll survival to see if they could get through. And then I gave everyone actual mazes to do

Amanda: like paper mazes on the table it was very cool.

Eric: Yeah so if you rolled poorly you got a really difficult maze, if you rolled really well you got a really easy maze and then whoever got through the maze would dictate what would happen next. And I was kind of like meeting my players where they were. I was like, you're playing a game I want you to play a game while we do this but I'm realizing as especially as we do this on mic is that all I want to do is push what fiction or storytelling and sound in a microphone. That's really what we're doing we're storytelling together we're doing something really strange. I mean Brandon's going in there and editing and sound designing this whole thing. So if I create something with our plot something we can really push the bounds of audio what you're listening to in your head I'm going to do it so he can be as weird or strange and really it's whatever I can make my voice do or whatever your characters can push on.

Michael: I stole those mazes and attempted to solve them myself. If I recall correctly

Eric: you did you got the the easy one really well.

Michael: Come on it was hard

Eric: it was for like four year olds.

Amanda: Yeah I one the worst and had a super hard maze and felt very unqualified for life.

Eric: Oh my God. Nessie just added a question. Will there be squirrel races in the campaign? I'm asking for a friend. Nessie you are obsessed with squirrels. There are no squirrel races in this game.

Amanda: No why can't we ask the squirrels just for Nessie. I want there to be squirrels in our fantasy universe.

Eric: Or maybe there will be.

Amanda: Who knows.

Eric: We have a DM question for Fish and this is also from Pomegranate. Since you have experience as a DM are there times when you want to do something that assumes more of a DM role like suggest a story thing or anything more meta. But then you have to remind yourself that you're just a player in this one and you force yourself to step back. Or does being a player come easier than that to you.

Michael: Uh... all the time, all the time all the time. I mean and this is definitely a me thing because as Eric very much knows DM'ing is tough work. I find it easier to DM than to play because I feel very limited in the player roll. All the time, I'm thinking as Mikey as Johnny and then as a DM of like what am I going to say or do next. And I'm constantly stopping myself. I'll have moments where I'll start like either table talking or doing something and I'll say hey guys actually that's not correct. That's not what Johnny would do or that's not what I would do. So for me that's what I'm doing more as the stopping myself from thinking like a DM and allowing myself to play more which is actually a weird experience. Because i'm not the most comfortable with it but I'm enjoying it and it's a lot of fun.

Brandon: Is that the same for you Eric? I think I've seen you play a couple of RPG's and you're a really fun player as well. Like is one of them easier for you.

Eric: I mean I think being a player is easier for me because someone else needs to deal with the consequences. One time I was playing a game where we went into a tavern kitchen and my guy was a cook on a ship. And the first thing that I did was run into the kitchen and try to invent jalapeno poppers

Brandon: Where you successful?

Eric: I was successful in inventing Jalapeno poppers

Brandon: Cream cheese?

Eric: Yeah absolutely.

Michael: And see as a DM that what you just said triggered my "oh I get to make rules about this now!" and I get really excited. So that's that's where...

Eric: Exactly. I think that building out a world and having it on tape though is like I feel so, I don't want to say I feel precious but like I care so much about what this podcast becomes and where the plot goes especially from the place that we've nestled ourselves in between an audio drama and a real play and whatever else improv like whatever the hell Magic Tavern is whatever you call that. Like I feel like I care so much about what happens that it's like, yes I should, I want to be DM'ing on microphone, I don't know what it be like to be a player on microphone. That would be kind of crazy.

Brandon: Amanda do you ever feel like DM jealousy at all? Like is it something you've ever wanted to like try and explore.

Amanda: No I definitely do not envy the responsibility. I think part of it is being busy in life and not having the hours to put behind building out this world. I mean I'm also the kind of person who's like a Choose Your Own Adventure completionist, like I'll I'll read a Goosebumps Choose Your Own Adventure book cover to cover until I've read through all of the permutations and I really want to see the totality of the world. Like if there's a fantasy series where there are like additional books published later about worldbuilding stuff and like corners of the universe that we never got to see I'll inhale those. So the idea that I could put work into preparing something that the players just totally bypass I think my control freak nature would just not be able to deal with.

Brandon: I think I have the same exact problem, especially when I was writing the campaign I need to write out like 'oh this person has a whole life like what's their story' I write out their whole story and then I end up with 300 pages of material that 200 pages of material gets thrown out the window.

Amanda: And I think I feel that too as we're playing like talking about the tensions within ourselves that we're dealing with. I can feel you doing so much more character back story than you're able to bring to the table or maybe deciding how much to talk about the motivations behind your actions and just doing the action whereas I, to be quite honest a lot of Inara, I just feel on the spot and I just do as it comes up which for me is like a creative step outside the box of trying to like inhabit a character and let decisions come as they may.

Michael: If you think Brandon is like prepping and thinking a lot about his character, Eric is like prepping and thinking about all these things that we will never go to. My advice I think I may have written in... Oooh! Shoutout to our blog posts you should read them. I've been writing advice for players and then also for DM's especially first timers so Amanda you have to try DM'ing at least once even if it's a one shot

Amanda: I will, i'll DM a one shot for us

Michael: You may probably hate it but that's totally fine. The statistic that's completely made up like all statistics is 75 percent of everything you prepare is thrown in the trash or something like that.

Amanda: Somewhere Nate Silver just rolled over in his grave.

Michael: Whatever

Brandon: Nate Silver is dead?!?!

Amanda: No No!

Eric: Nate Silver died and then rolled over in his grave.

Amanda: He sleeps in a cavern guys.

Michael: I just listened to his podcast guys.... It's just you're going to throw away most of what you prep.

Brandon: Hey, the stat cave?

Eric: Ughhhh

Amanda: hahahah, see you guys I think of lore on the spot man, that's just like improv, fuck it. Sorry Mikey.

Michael: So I know the pain that Eric is having and I sympathize and empathize and I will not stop throwing wrenches.

Eric: I gotta say though, what you guys think are wrenches are really more like bridges for me. Here's one thing for example you guys jumped out that window in Episode 3 right? Just because you jumped out that window didn't mean you weren't going to meet Stoneface. Didn't mean you weren't going to go in the alchemy room. I had these things set up like the obviously a castle still has these rooms but like wherever you go, maybe you'll stumble into them in a different way.

Michael: I often think about what happened if we had gone to the other rooms, if we had walked down there and we went to the other rooms where we never went specifically or like we got to Stoneface later there but we never met him as quickly as we did, which he's impacted us so much.

Eric: I think about if you guys went to the trophy room at all before Tracey went to it or any of the other rooms I'd set up that we didn't even get to before you went to see Stoneface.

Michael: I still would have bothered Ella.

Eric: Oh yeah, you definitely could have bothered if you like...

Michael: She's still my friend!

Brandon: You guys want to take our... can out Christmas card this year be us four with Stoneface in it

Amanda: Our party's Christmas Card?

Brandon: Yeah

Amanda: Absolutely. That's great.

Brandon: Eric so you're like in a cloud or something.

Amanda: Yeah and they'll tack it up above all of the places that we've been just like little infamous calling card like these these fools impacted our life probably negatively.

Michael: That's the real thieves cant.

Amanda: It really is!

Eric: So it just is as much like throw out but also repurpose or re-imagine or like re-bridge. Sometimes what happens, that all that happens is the route changes but inherently when you change the order of events. Plot is different. Character creation is different and that just makes me really happy.

Amanda: I picture like playing Betrayal on House on the Hill and all of the tiles of the different floors are kind of spread out disparate on the table and it's up to us to find the hallways and the dumb waiters and the stairs that make all those rooms come together

Eric: That game is like you have the same amount of rooms you have the same rooms every time nothing changes it's just the different times you flip the rooms at how these things happen together.

Amanda: Yeah the ordering configuration of which they appear. So shout out to our new Medium. We are really excited about it. Our Patrons have been enjoying these blog posts for months now but we are going to kind of polish up and publish the best of them later after the Patrons have a chance to read them for the world. Eric shared his mechanics behind fantasy Chopped. He is our fantasy Ted Allen and it is worth bringing into your own campaigns. So check that out. Mikey's all kinds of amazing advice for DM's and for players like he said. I wrote a little bit about D&D from a queer perspective and I'm reviewing games from a newbie's perspective and Brandon has all kinds of incredible stuff about making audio and also making games for audio. So that is at medium.com/@jointhepartypod so you can find a there or find us on Twitter or Facebook and all the normal places. We're also closing in on 60 iTunes reviews so we are really stoked about that. It is genuinely actually really really good for this show. So if you want to open up Apple Podcasts on your iPhone or on any desktop computer of any make or model and just give us a hopefully five star rating. Tell us something nice, make a pun, do in the voice of Stoneface the voice of Tammy and Taylor. Do whatever you want but we're going to be reading our favorites and tweeting them. So we would really appreciate your help that way.

Eric: I love the medium so much it makes me so happy. If you want them at the beginning you can donate to our Patreon. So like all of our Patrons people have already read these.

Amanda: Absolutely you can join our dope group of Patrons in the Discord where we ask for questions for these Afterparties. You can read the NPC backstories that Eric writes for some of these characters that may not see the light of day as much as he planned, in each episode, they are really good and beautiful and have been formally really interesting with both literature majors so it makes me happy whenever we kind of play with form and do one that's all dialogue or all backstory or in the form of a whatever, screenplay. So it's been really fun

Michael: Form of: A Screenplay!

Eric: I got to do one in the form of a screenplay now

Michael: I'm sorry, I apologize

Eric: Form of a quatrains!

Eric: So the wondertwins have these magic rings.

Amanda: I don't get it. We'll have to talk about this after

Eric: the after after party

Amanda: so however you help us, however you're listening, you made it through the Afterparty and we are so grateful that you are here. So thank you again. We can't wait to talk to you and you will be hearing from us in the next episode. In the meantime don't be so scared of what the party sometimes really interesting audio happens because of it.

Brandon: And don't be afraid to wrestle

Michael: And don't be afraid to talk to librarians?

Eric: And don't be afraid to come up with random characters for all of your players to interact with the because it'll probably be fine.